* AccidentalInnuendo: Arthur's line about his sword to the Lady of the Lake sound like he was CompensatingForSomething.-->'''Arthur Pendragon''': I need my sword, my Lady. I am not whole without Excalibur.* AnimationAgeGhetto: Despite being darker than a typical Disney cartoon and trying to reach for a older audience than just children, the show still wound up a victim of this, especially due to the third season and the first volume of the season 2 DVD set underselling. Blog/CartoonBrew writer Neil Emmett, while discussing this trope [[http://www.cartoonbrew.com/ideas-commentary/how-can-we-make-adult-animation-truly-adult-86385.html disparaged the series as "juvenile mediocrities"]] in favor of overlooked indy adult animators such as Creator/JanSvankmajer and Yuri Norstein. Some fans did ''not'' take that well. * AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Just how evil is Xanatos exactly? Is he even truly evil, or just really, really, ''REALLY'' misguided and, in his own way, lacking for social skills? ** Well, he did ruin a number of lives with no real regard for the people hurt in the crossfire so he is at least mildly evil. ** Many of his deeds are understandable FromACertainPointOfView, but what he arranged for his [[PettingZooPeople trusting employee, Derek Maza]], is definitely villainous.** Xanatos is never cruel for cruelty's sake, but he can and will do terrible things to innocent people if it benefits him.*** Is Xanatos truly redeemed or does he see that allying himself with the Gargoyles benefits him more than going against them?** Is Demona a tragic villain that deserves as much sympathy as her backstory provides or has her atrocities, City of Stone being a glaring example, destroyed any chance of being sympathetic and just made her a mass murdering complete monster who'd blame her misfortunes on others instead of accepting the fact that she's also responsible for the misfortunes that was brought upon her.* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Most of the music in the show qualifies for this, but the opening theme is a fan favorite.* CompleteMonster: For the most part, this series has a well-deserved reputation for sympathetic and three-dimensional villains - [[MagnificentBastard Xanatos]] pets at least as many dogs as he kicks. There are, however, a few unrepentantly horrible ones.** [[PsychoForHire Jackal]] is a sadistic and violent member of The Pack who gleefully participates in hunting the gargoyles for sport and abandons his humanity to become a cyborg killing machine, seeming only to take pleasure in violence and cruelty. While Jackal is often kept in check by his colleagues, season 2's "Grief" reveals what he is truly capable of. When the Egyptian God Anubis is captured by an Emir seeking to bring his dead son back to life, Jackal seizes power from the Jackal God and makes himself the god of death, torturing his enemies by aging them to the point they are almost too infirm to move and transforming his own teammates into children. Jackal proceeds to attempt to wipe out every living thing on the planet simply [[ForTheEvulz because he can]], even destroying an entire city before he is stopped.** Thailog is the EvilTwin of Goliath. Created from the DNA of Goliath, with some more from Xanatos and MadScientist Anton Sevarius, Thailog ended up as an EvilGenius whose only drive was his ambition to dominate, enrich himself and control what he could. Thailog seduced Demona and attempted to trick her and Macbeth into killing one another to steal their fortunes and seize control of their assets. He later revealed he had cloned the entire Gargoyle clan in preparation for killing them...even Demona herself. When Demona stopped Thailog from killing her daughter, Thailog merely attempted to kill her as well, and later resurfaced to gut Goliath with a knife to collect his DNA and potentially kill his 'father.' Even Xanatos is afraid of him once he finds he has no control over him.** Proteus of the New Olympians is a shape-shifting SerialKiller who was imprisoned after murdering the previous captain of the guard. He consistently assumes the form of his victim to mock the man's son Taurus. When he tricks his way to freedom, Proteus delights in sowing the seeds of chaos all through the city, using people's emotions against them with his powers for a sick thrill and even attempting to destroy his city and commit genocide on his own people.* CrazyAwesome: Matt. The seemingly all-powerful Illuminati repeatedly tried to foil his investigation, even damaging his career in the process, but he overcame every roadblock sent his way. He even turns a seeming dead end into a lead that cracks his case wide open. [[spoiler: Which is why they make him a member.]]-->'''Matt:''' I'm funny that way.\\'''Mace:''' You are impressive that way.* DesignatedHero / DesignatedVillain: The episode ''Pendragon'' arguably makes KingArthur and Macbeth of all people into this, respectively. ** The episode concerns Arthur's quest to reclaim his lost sword, Excalibur, with Macbeth opposing him and wanting to claim the sword as his own. Problem is, Arthur essentially has no moral high ground on Macbeth: As Macbeth correctly points out, he is just as valid a candidate as Arthur as the destined wielder of Excalibur, since the prophecy surrounding it says it is to be claimed by a "timeless king". Arthur, however, spends a large part of the episode acting insulted and irritated by the sheer notion that he might have to prove his worthiness again after centuries of sleeping rather than being immediately granted the sword back, coming across as rather entitled and spoiled. When it briefly seems Macbeth has been granted the sword, Arthur's first instinct is to attack him and insist that a mistake has been made, whereas Macbeth gracefully accepts defeat upon seeing Arthur being granted the real sword. This is compounded by the fact that Arthur doesn't actually solve most of the riddles leading to the sword himself, leaving the gargoyles to do most of the brainwork and not making himself come across as much more worthy of having it than Macbeth. The episode does make a point to show that even when out of his element, Arthur is still a capable leader, but most of the things meant to demonstrate this come across as rather weak, bordering on CharacterShilling (the Lady of the Lake praises Arthur's leadership because he thought to yell at the gargoyles that they should shoot at a water monster with a lightning gun).** Macbeth, on the other hand, does almost nothing really immoral in the whole episode, and comes off as a good deal more cunning than Arthur. His henchpeople do attempt to kill the gargoyles, but never in any scenes where Macbeth himself is present. In fact, at the start of the episode, the gargoyles actually attack Macbeth without any real provocation, pretty much an anomaly for them in the series.* DracoInLeatherPants:** What's done to Demona in fanfiction... oh, poor Demona.** It's done a lot to Xanatos as well.** Also Thailog.** Macbeth is a fairly minor example -- he's an AntiVillain who's heavy on the "anti"- but a lot of his fans see him as a HeroAntagonist, which WordOfGod says he's definitely ''not'', at least when first introduced (later in the series, this may have changed). * EnsembleDarkhorse:** Although most of his scenes are with Lexington and Broadway, many fans love Brooklyn, especially [[MrFanservice the ladies]].** Also [[EvilIsSexy Demona]], who had many fans, [[MemeticSexGoddess especially males]].** And [[HotWitch The Weird Sisters]].* EvilIsCool: '''Xanatos'''.* EvilIsSexy: Demona, [[AxCrazy Hyena]], [[CuteGhostGirl The Banshee]], [[HotWitch The Weird Sisters]] (at least while Seline/Fury is in control), [[EveryoneLovesBlondes Robyn Canmore]], [[PerkyGoth Shari]], and [[ActionGirl Fox]] [[spoiler: at least until her HeelFaceTurn]], all qualify in spades for this. [[DracoInLeatherPants Xanatos]] easily counts as well, as does [[EvilTwin Thailog.]]* FanDislikedExplanation: Although the show is usually good at tying up loose ends, a few plot threads have been left hanging: The computer virus that Xanatos acquires in "Legion," for example, is never seen or heard of again. (Given how TechnologyMarchesOn, it is unlikely that it ever will be now.) What Titania whispered to Fox in "The Gathering" has also been left hanging; WordOfGod says that it wasn't very important anyway.* FanonDiscontinuity: Some fans of the show ignore Goliath Chronicles, and dismiss it as nonexistent. Hell, [[WordOfGod Weisman himself]] goes by that notion.* FoeYay: Xanatos basically ''[[ItMakesSenseInContext dresses up as Goliath every night.]]''* FunnyAneurysmMoment: This exchange between Elisa and Xanatos in the third episode seems a lot less funny when [[spoiler: we see Xanatos ruling Manhattan as his own private nation in "Future Tense"]].-->'''Xanatos''': The truth is that my men repelled an invasion by a rival corporation trying to steal some of our new technology.\\'''Elisa''': "Repelled an invasion"? You're a private citizen, Xanatos, not a country!** In a perhaps less "funny" and more ironic sense. early on Xanatos warned Goliath that New Yorkers would soon start hunting Gargoyles, and that he would be the clans only salvation. Skip ahead to the episode "Hunter's Moon"; a mob of angry New Yorkers are about to start a riot to kill the "monsters," and [[spoiler:Xanatos saves them by offering them a ride in his helicopter.]] Later still, in "Angels in the Night" you see that the Gargoyles are still hunted and persecuted by New Yorkers, [[spoiler: and Xanatos helping the clan out of a trap set up by the Quarrymen]].* GeniusBonus:** It is not essential to understanding the show, but familiarity with the myths, legends and RealLife history of some of the characters adds a whole new depth to some of the stories (on the other hand, there are some points where their inaccuracies can cause headaches amongst that same crowd).** The 3 gargoyles who make up Coldstone are nicknamed Othello, Desdemona (Othello's mate), and Iago (Othello's enemy, who desires Desdemona). Othello was convinced Goliath tried to take Desdemona away from him. This is pretty much ''Theatre/{{Othello}}'' in a robotic, FrankensteinsMonster-like nutshell.** Macbeth is based on the historical Macbeth, not the [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespearean]] [[{{Theatre/Macbeth}} one.]] This is off-handedly referenced in the comic, when he and Arthur commiserate on historical accuracy.* GrowingTheBeard: Many fans point to "City of Stone" as the point when ''Gargoyles'' made the jump from an above-average ActionAdventure cartoon to a true epic with multi-layered characters and complex story arcs. It introduced [[BelatedBackstory surprisingly detailed backstories]] for Macbeth and Demona (leading to major CharacterDevelopment for both), but it also featured the first official alliance between [[TheChessmaster David Xanatos]] and the gargoyles--firmly cementing Xanatos as the unpredictable [[TheChessmaster Chessmaster]] that we know and love.* HarsherInHindsight: In the episode "Mark Of The Panther" Elisa's mother, Diana Maza, tells the story of the Panther Queen which gets a lot worse when you remember that her son Derek Maza was transformed into a panther mutate by Xanatos.** From the same episode (though this could also be Hilarious in Hindsight), when [[GiantSpider Anansi]] declares his desire to turn the protagonists into Panthers, Elisa spites him retorting "[[TakeThat Dream on]] Franchise/SpiderMan!". Not just does Disney own Marvel Comics now, but also Weisman was the head writer of WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan.** In "Future Tense", our heroes are in a BadFuture and the WTC is missing in one scene. The episode aired in 1996 and Puck says it's a prophecy. Disturbing...* HellIsThatNoise: The werewolf from "Eye of the Beholder". Words utterly fail to describe how unearthly horrifying that thing sounded.** Also [[spoiler: Thailog's]] EvilLaugh in the beginning of "Double Jeopardy". * HilariousInHindsight:** Demona, a gargoyle, flitting about [[Disney/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame Notre Dame]]... In a dark and serious feature by Disney, no less.** Brooklyn in Future Tense. ''Holy crap, what an asshole!''** Goliath [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faLvr1LyL5o at one point uses the term "Forever alone.".]] [[MemeticMutation Several years later...]]** In "Future Tense", the alternate universe Brooklyn mentions that Thailog died in the "Clone Wars". Greg Weisman is now working on a new ''Franchise/StarWars'' animated series with ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars''' supervising director Dave Filoni.** This is not the last time Creator/DavidWarner voiced [[VideoGame/BaldursGate an evil wizard]]** Fans disliked Preston Vogel for seeming like a rip-off of the more fleshed-out Owen. [[spoiler: Owen is an in-universe ripoff of Vogel, as he is styled after him by Puck, his true identity.]]** In "A Bronx Tail", a child is shown reading a "[[CaptainErsatz Mega]] [[Franchise/XMen Mutants]]" Comic book near the start of the episode. It seems humorously prophetic now that Disney owns Marvel Comics.** In "Walkabout," Anastasia Reynard, voiced by [[Series/StarTrekVoyager Kate Mulgrew,]] remarks that they don't know enough about hive mind artificial intelligence. The episode originally premiered before the Borg made their debut on Voyager, where much more about the Borg was revealed then had been known previous. *** While on the subject of Anastasia Reynard, the later reveal of her as Lady Titania, wife of Oberon, is rather amusing, considering Kate Mulgrew's later role as [[Franchise/DragonAge Flemeth, the witch of the wilds.]]** In ''Grief'', Angela's line about "stopping the [[Franchise/AvatarTheLastAirbender avatar]]".*** On the subject regarding an unrelated work called Film/{{Avatar}}, one of the gargoyles that Elisa Maza, Goliath, and Angela meet in Guatemala in the episode "The Green" looks uncannily alike a Na'vi with wings. To add to that, the episode also happened to have a GreenAesop as well.** The Hunter that Demona fights during the Renaissance uses a flying machine very similar to the type Leonardo Da Vinci designed. That wouldn't seem coincidental back then, [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreed2 but nowadays...]]* IdiotPlot: In a way ''Deadly Force'', an otherwise very powerful and gripping episode, revolves around this as it requires Elisa, an experienced police officer, to be stupid enough to leave her gun lying around loaded for anyone, in this case Broadway, to find, who then accidentally shoots and almost kills her because he has no idea of how dangerous guns actually are. This causes grief for Elisa later on when an annoying partner is forced on her by her idiot chief because of it. * InferredHolocaust: Nothing is ever mentioned afterwards of the ''entire city'' which Jackal, mad with Anubis' powers, reduced to mere rubble, though the Emir/Anubis fusion mentions returning the stolen life energies we never actually see it happen. ** Demona murdering several people while they're turned to stone, plus that woman whose arms she shot off.* JerkassWoobie: Macbeth and Demona to a lesser degree.* LaughablyEvil: Sevarius. Also Thailog, although the latter is more evil than laughable.* MagnificentBastard:** Xanatos, of course. Brilliant and utterly devious? Check. Smooth operator? Double-check. Goal-oriented? Absolutely. Charismatic? AND HOW!** Thailog solidifies himself as another one when he ''gets the better of Xanatos'' in his ''first appearance''. While Xanatos only saw the "I win no matter what" part of a XanatosGambit, Thailog realized that his experienced employees would take orders that made no sense because of them. He used the XanatosGambit as a ''weakness''. Of course, he learned it from the best...** Even Owen Burnett, Xanatos' assistant, might qualify [[spoiler: being actually Puck and all.]]** Magnificent Bitch: Fox, who ends up becoming Xanatos' wife for this very reason. Demona comes close to qualifying during her [[TheChessmaster chessmaster]] moments.* {{Memetic Sex God}}dess: The series has a lot of attractive characters, but [[EvilIsSexy Demona]] takes the cake here.* MoralEventHorizon:** Xanatos went over it for Elisa in "Metamorphosis". It's unlikely she'll ever forgive him completely.** Lexington [[spoiler:was never really able to get over being duped by the Pack, though he eventually forgives Fox, if only for the sake of baby Alexander.]]** Demona goes over it truly in "City of Stone", [[spoiler:where she ends up breaking, and thus murdering, an untold number of humans turned to stone]].** The Pack all get one, [[spoiler:when they irreversibly change their bodies into stronger but more monstrous forms, with the exception of AntiVillain Dingo, who goes for a suit of powered armor that of course does nothing to change his actual body.]]** Jon Canmore crosses it when he tries to kill Vinnie for disobeying him.* MostAnnoyingSound: [[OurBansheesAreLouder The Banshee's wail]], in and out of universe. Granted, [[CaptainObvious that was the whole point]], but sitting through all her scenes was painful.* {{Narm}}: Occasionally the series' trademark melodrama goes a bit too far.** In "Deadly Force", Elisa is hit with a bullet which, according to the doctor, gets her in the stomach, collarbone, heart, lung, and spine, in that order. In an episode that otherwise handles its gun control [[AnAesop aesop]] pretty well, the ridiculous trajectory of the bullet is just plain laughable.** In "A Lighthouse In the Sea of Time", Robbins takes care to make sure that his delivery of the ReadingIsCoolAesop doesn't become preachy or narmy. Broadway, on the other hand, is a bit too [[LargeHam hammy]] when he pontificates on the magic of the written word.* OnlyTheCreatorDoesItRight: Given the fandom's reaction to [[FanonDisContinuity season 3]], most people see Greg as the true storyteller of the series.* TheProblemWithLicensedGames: Averted. The Sega Genesis game is an all-around excellent, albeit NintendoHard, action-platformer.* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: Princess Katherine and the Magus once they TookALevelInBadass. And [[TookALevelInKindness Kindness]].** Matt Bluestone may count as well. When he was introduced as a regular cast member he was forced on Elisa after she'd been shot. The Chief thought Elisa could use some backup on the street. Because he didn't know about the Gargoyles' existence, he spent a long stretch of time as TheLoad. It wasn't until later when his back story and personal obsessions started to come out that he started being able to be useful. Elisa and the Gargoyles stopped viewing him as TheLoad and started to think of him as a friend. * RonTheDeathEater: This is done a lot to Goliath in fanfiction. Usually in stories that give Demona the DracoInLeatherPants treatment. There was a period where it got so bad, that when it was being discussed on one of the forums, GregWeisman himself had to comment: http://www.s8.org/gargoyles/askgreg/search.php?rid=262* TheScrappy: Matt Bluestone. Even after he got some CharacterDevelopment he was still viewed as this by some. * SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped:** "Deadly Force." They wanted to push AnAesop in there, and they pulled it off perfectly.** ''City of Stone'' was anything but subtle in conveying the Aesop that killing never solves anything, but the scene in which the Weird Sisters and Goliath stop Macbeth from killing Demona wouldn't have been nearly as powerful otherwise.* TastesLikeDiabetes: From the perspective of Anton Sevarius, Angela making fast friends with Nessie (the Nessie of Loch Ness, to be precise) falls under this trope.-->'''Sevarius:''' If it gets any more saccharine in there, I'm going to put a finger down my throat.* TrueNeutral: [[TheGrimReaper Anubis]].-->'''The Emir''': I ''demand'' reparation! My son was cruelly and unfairly taken from me!-->'''Anubis''': On the contrary, death is the ''ultimate'' fairness. Rich and poor, young and old, all are equal in death. You would not like to see the jackal god play favorites.* UglyCute: A majority of the gargoyles, quite a few of whom actually aren't ugly at all.* VillainSue: In earlier episodes, Xanatos stopped just a hair's breadth of being one; he's Lex Luthor (amoral corporate genius inventor) crossed with Doctor Doom (power armor and enjoys mixing magic and science), handsomer than both, rich as hell, all of his plans [[XanatosGambit regardless of if you beat him]] go the way he wanted them to in some way, and most importantly, he is completely free of the weaknesses mastermind villains usually have, namely overwhelming ego (he has it, but he never lets it get in the way of anything), petty revenge fetishes ("Revenge is a sucker's game."), insanity (while he's amoral, he is not a sociopath or insane), and idleness (he always makes sure he can take care of himself if his plans fall apart). What's worse is that no matter what happens, it never feels like it was a major setback for him. As time went on, his weaknesses and flaws were found and elaborated on; namely, his standards make him human enough to genuinely love his family - yet his ambition is great enough he often sees that love as a weakness.* WhatAnIdiot: Oh, so many that it could have its own page. Let's start at the beginning. Yes, people of Castle Wyvern, treat the gargoyles -- half of your fighting force -- like crap and act like [[UngratefulBastard Ungrateful Bastards]] after they save you from the Vikings. Surely this won't cause problems later on when you need them the most.[[note]]A stupid decision, but one remniscient of several incidents in actual history. Almost every class-based revolution starts from very similar seeds.[[/note]]** Brooklyn giving Demona the powerful grimoire despite the fact she tried to kill him the last time they met.** Elisa being dumb enough to leave her gun lying around loaded for anyone to find in ''Deadly Force''. While she may have been a single woman who was accustomed to living alone and not having guests randomly show up out of nowhere, you would think that an experienced police officer like her would already know better than to just leave her gun lying around like that. She forgot that Broadway has a tenth-century education and only knows about guns from movies.* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: An all-adult cast, serious explorations on issues like prejudice and genocide from the first episode, a VerySpecialEpisode about the consequences of gun usage (which isn't painted in black-and-white like other Aesops), ''loads'' of Shakespeare references, and to top it off a villain who will [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds have you divided on whether you should hate her or not]]. Not something you'd really see in most Disney animation, much less Disney television (which does explain why Disney screwed it over. Something that deep, dark, action-packed, and intellectual doesn't fit into the cutesy, light-heartedness of Disney. Look what happened to ''Disney/TheBlackCauldron'').* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: The episode "Deadly Force" was accused by the NRA and other Pro-Gun ownership groups of being intended to promote gun control. Weisman responded to these claims by stating that if he was intending to influence political thinking then he picked a very poor time to do so, that being on November 18, ten days after the 1994 midterm elections, when elections for Congress, State and most local offices would have concluded by then. He also clarified that the message of that episode is that guns were weapons that could harm people, thus they must be handled responsibly and that it contained no intended advocating for one side or the other.* TheWoobie: Many characters take turns with this, but Goliath, Elisa, and Macbeth stand out the most. Just watch Macbeth's back story in "City Of Stone" and try not to feel pity towards him at the end.----